U.S.'s Influence on British Cinema Culture Between 1930 and 1980

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U.S.'s Influence on British Cinema Culture Between 1930 and 1980 Britain and America have always had a very close relationship that could have stemmed from a number of different things. The English discovered America, they both speak the same language and the fact that America helped Britain in the first World War may have played an important part in why the two countries are so close. Due to this close bond or the 'special relationship' between the countries, over time we have influenced each other endlessly but perhaps none more so than the influence that America has had over British cinema between the 1930's and 1980's. Since the late 1800's and early 1900's, Britain has made a great deal of films and continues to do so today. Britain has an impressive film industry but America's is even better and has far much more money invested in it. British films are much more low maintenance than American films and seem to deal with more everyday stories than America whose films tend to be based around a heroic. Patriotic theme. The two film industries are very different which is perhaps a reason why the films produced appeal to people in the other country. The reason they are able to appeal to one another is that they share English as their main language. This means that the films can be easily understood and no subtitles need to be used to translate the language. The British film industry began to take off in the 1920's and as a result of advancing technology, family outings to the cinema became a favourite family activity. However in America their film industry was already booming therefore it invested a lot of funds into British ... ... middle of paper ... ...rom the twenties until about the sixties, Britain still managed to develop it's own style which makes the industries very contrasted and has made them more appealing to the American market. It would be true to say that the USA had a big influence over the British film industry and still does today to some extent in that Americans who like British films will go to the cinema to watch them and therefore the industry gets more money to invest in other films. Of course the USA is much larger than Britain therefore more people in America are going to see British films than in Britain itself meaning that the film yields more money. Today American funding still exists but mainly due to how successful the British film is in America whereas before the funding was direct and therefore the influence of America was stronger.

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